What do SME owners under 45 y/o want from a broker?

By
Vero Insurance
06 August 2018

In a rapidly changing economy, younger business owners and decision makers are creating and establishing the businesses that will become the future of the economy, so it makes sense for us to look to younger SMEs to understand how attitudes and behaviours towards insurance and broking may develop. That’s why we’ve developed a ‘Lead Nurture Kit’ to help bring to life some of the challenges SMEs under 45 years face and how using a broker can help.

The kit will include a series of videos for use in lead nurturing situations with potential customers and will be accompanied with a guide and tips on how to deploy the videos to help drive to a sales conversion. These videos (when used in conjunction with the various strategies contained in the PDF guide) provide a platform for nurturing new leads for your brokerage.

N.B. While these videos are hosted in the Vero YouTube channel, the videos themselves are unbranded, should you choose to download and embed them on your own site or client marketing materials.

How do broker clients get advice about business risks?

The trend to turn to informal sources of advice is at its strongest amongst SMEs under 45s, with friends, family and colleagues being the most common source of advice, followed by accountants and bookkeepers.

This means that SMEs under 45 years are at increased risk of receiving informal advice. However, the younger generation are also very reliant on word of mouth, which represents a significant opportunity for brokerages to grow their business with SMEs under 45s years through active referral strategies.

What are their attitudes towards insurance?

In general, SMEs under 45 years are less content and confident with insurance, and therefore need reassurance, information and support from their brokers. Compared to their older peers, they are significantly more likely to review their insurance when they have made changes to their business, such as upgrading IT, investing in equipment or moving to a new business model.

SMEs Under 45 years and brokers

Did you know that a large proportion of SMEs under 45 years use a broker for at least some of their insurance? In fact, only 22% of them claim to not use a broker at all, compared to 37% of SMEs over 45 years. However, mixed use is most common with 60% using a broker for some, but not all, of their insurance.

How is their broker usage changing?

40% of SMEs under 45 say that they are using a broker less now than they used to.

Their top 5 reasons for using a broker less are:

Too much commission / fees

Easy enough to organise my insurance myself

I prefer to use online channels

The policies I need are now available direct

Couldn’t see what value they added

While price plays a big role for them, there is evidence that younger SMEs don’t clearly understand the value that a broker brings. Contrary o stereotypes, SMEs under 45 are also more likely to want frequent human contact, either by phone or face to face, at least every few months. This possibly coincides with the fact that they review their business insurance more often and therefore need more frequent advice.

Tips for engaging SME’s under 45 years

To help you seize the opportunities to engage with SME’s under 45, we’ve developed a ‘Lead Nurture Kit’ that bring to life some of the challenges they face and how using a broker can help. The kit includes a series of videos for use in lead nurturing situations with potential customers, as well as a guide on how to use these videos to help drive to a sales conversion.